Once upon a time, there was a young man named Xiaolin who wanted to become a martial arts master and went to the famous authentic Huashan School to learn from his master.
Huashan School is carrying out teaching reform experiments and has set up a random class for newly recruited disciples. Xiaolin was assigned to Master Yue. After learning for a while, Kobayashi felt that his master was teaching very slowly. Master Yue always likes to talk about a lot of theories, and even talks about "martial arts culture"; the courses are not targeted enough. It is obvious that they are talking about one move in the morning, but they are taking another move in the afternoon.
The class next door taught by the uncle is good, and the scores in each exam are higher than those of my own group. Especially there is a junior sister next door, who is said to be the daughter of Master Yue. Each move is as coherent as flowing water, which is so beautiful.
Kolin is resentful, and he thinks that Master Yue does not teach real kung fu. But the elder brother told him that our group is practicing slow skills, and the next door is fast skills: the fast skills progress is fast but lacks connotation. Our slow skills may lose the present, but we will definitely win the future.
Do you think the eldest brother is right? Is there really such skill in the world that you lose now and win the future? Of course, I compiled the story of
, but it has a solid research foundation and represents a universal learning rule.
In 2017, American education economist Greg Duncan led a large-scale study that specifically raised a problem of early childhood education called the "withering effect." This rule is that if you quickly instill some knowledge into students, it can indeed allow them to quickly gain a grade advantage - but this advantage will never fade away after long. Others will learn that knowledge in the end, but you don’t have enough momentum.
In fact, all education has this "withering effect". Why is this?
Researchers believe that this is because the knowledge that can be instilled suddenly belongs to "closed" skills, and they are all processes that operate according to prescribed actions. This kind of knowledge is taught and taught, but it lacks the accumulated effect and cannot be the basis for further progress. To make people not catch up with you so easily, you need to master "open" skills - this skill can be connected with other knowledge and has a compound interest effect.
But open-ended skills are learned slowly. Here we will talk about several truly effective learning methods, and their common characteristic is slowness. You will realize that losing the kung fu now and winning the kung fu in the future is real kung fu. Which teacher is better for
?
U.S. Air Force Academy is a large teaching institution that trains many students every year, and the teaching is strict and very systematic. The students are all soldiers, but they need to learn very formal advanced mathematics and various courses in science and engineering. The basis of all these courses is two semester calculus, one called "Calculus I" and the other called "Calculus II". Some economist specialized in researching the methods of teaching calculus in the Air Force Academy.
Air Force Academy first randomly divides the students into several classes. Each class teaches differently, but the exam questions and scoring standards are exactly the same. Moreover, after taking Calculus I, we will be randomly assigned to another class and then taking Calculus II. This system is particularly easy to see which teacher teaches well and which teacher does not teach well.
These teachers can be divided into two categories. The first type of teachers are particularly good at getting students to get good grades. He explained the course very smoothly, with clear knowledge points and clear problem-solving operation procedures. Students know exactly what they have gained in class, their practice is very targeted, and they are full of confidence during the exam. What the first type of teacher teaches is quick work.
, but the second type of teacher teaches slow work. He often tells students something other than the prescribed content, such as connecting calculus thoughts with knowledge of physics. He hopes that students can have a deeper understanding of calculus...and none of these can be used directly on the exam.After listening to the class and going back to do exercises, students have to find ways to solve them on the spot, because the teacher does not carry out targeted routine training! It can be imagined that the test scores of these students are not very good.
The students also don’t have a high rating for the second-class teachers. Maybe the students are thinking that we are all soldiers, not mathematicians, so why can’t you teach the course more smoothly? Students generally prefer the first type of teachers.
However, economists use data to prove that the second type of teachers who like to establish connections to knowledge teach real kung fu. Researchers are not concerned with the students’ test scores in Calculus I, but whether they have really mastered Calculus—and this is reflected in the students’ performance in subsequent courses such as Calculus II, and science and engineering courses that will be used in calculus.
The results are very obvious. The students taught by the first type of teachers encountered difficulties in the subsequent courses; while those taught by the second type of teachers performed well in the subsequent courses.
This phenomenon does not only occur in the Air Force Academy. An Italian university also did a similar study. Researchers observed 1,200 college students and found that the students who were not well evaluated by students and did not get high scores were taught better in their subsequent studies.
Some teachers teach exam-taking skills, while some teachers teach real kung fu... Even students like the first type of teachers. Have they forgotten that the purpose of learning is not just for exams.
Direct practice and alternate practice
For experienced teachers, it is easier to make students learn quickly and get good grades in the exam. The best way is to practice directly: teach the operating rules and then use this rule to do the exercise immediately.
For example, today I am talking about mathematics, then analyze a question type, summarize a problem-solving routine, and immediately ask you to do ten exercises with the same question type after the lesson. You will do it very well. Test this question type the next day and your grades will definitely be good.
But let’s think about it, is this the problem in real life? You will encounter a problem at work this afternoon. Can you learn this routine in the morning first? impossible. The problems are caught off guard. Some are new questions that you have never seen before. What you need is not just how to operate which move, but you must be able to judge which move to use first.
The correct way to practice is to mix exercises. Every exercise should be mixed questions. Each time you do a question, you have to temporarily determine which routine to use, which means applying what you have learned.
Epstein gave an example. For example, if you want to learn to appreciate the paintings of famous painters, you want to have the ability to judge which painter's work you see by seeing a painting. One method is to learn the works of each painter in turn, such as first looking at 10 Picasso in a row, then looking at 10 Cézanne , and then looking at 10 Lenoir ; another method is to mix the paintings of these painters together and judge them one by one. The second method will make you make a lot of mistakes, but it can further deepen your understanding of the differences in the styles of different painters.
U.S. Navy Air Defense Forces training has been conducted once. The students are divided into two groups. The first group is to practice directly in pieces, that is, to teach a routine first, and then practice this routine vigorously. The second group is mixed exercises, and each exercise is mixed practice. The routines taught today are likely to be different from the routines you practice today.
In the tests conducted every day, we can imagine that the grades of the first group are always better than those of the second group, because what they practice is what they learn, and what they test is what they practice. But in the final competition after all training events, because the problems are new, you must decide which move to use, and the second group defeated the first group. The principle of
is a bit counterintuitive but also in line with intuition.Divide the course into several pieces and practice whatever you learn each time. Isn’t this the most natural way to learn? Really not. Mixed and interlaced training is the most natural way to learn.
There have even been studies that even practicing piano should use a mixed method. For example, we need to learn an advanced technique: use your left hand to cross 15 keys to do an action within 0.2 seconds. Researchers stipulate that each person can go home to practice 190 times. Some people only practiced this movement 190 times, while others practiced cross-practice across 8, 12, 15 and 22 keys... The test results found that the group of people who used mixed practices had a significantly better grasp.
There is a motto called "People holding a hammer in their hands will see nails when they see everything", which refers to those who only know how to practice a few routines but do not know how to adapt. Mixed exercises, every time you judge which move to use, can help you overcome this weakness. Establishing connections and mixing exercises are both ways to teach you how to learn and apply them. Let’s talk about two ways to deepen memory.
Test and interval
Psychologists have a saying called "favorable difficulty" - it seems to be a difficult, but you want this difficulty because it allows you to learn deeply. If you have difficulties, you are real learning.
To deepen your memory of new knowledge, one way is to test it first and then learn it. You have not learned this knowledge point yet, and it is definitely easy to get wrong when you test it up, but that's right. Making mistakes can impress you even more. Especially if you have particularly strong self-confidence, the more you believe that it is right and when you find that it is wrong, the deeper your impression will be, and the easier it will be for you to remember this knowledge.
Another method to consciously set the time interval is not to pursue a course that is to suddenly finish a course within a few days. Of course you can do it, but you won’t be impressed after learning it. The best way is to learn several courses at the same time. After learning this today, you will deliberately let it go for one or two days and not learn it, "deliberately not practice", and learn it after a period of time.
Come back a few days later, and when you extract this memory, it will feel a little difficult. It’s right to have difficulties, and this is the “favorable difficulty” we want. Only by overcoming difficulties can deep learning be learned.
Learning is really an interesting activity. When it comes to it, everyone knows that adversity can make people learn new things, such as "learning from one's mistakes" and "how to see the rainbow without experiencing the wind and rain". However, when you really want to learn, people still hope that the teacher can get everything well so that you can get good grades smoothly.
Little do you know that the phrase "Getting from one mistake and wisdom" is not strategically feasible. Most people usually don’t learn from their own failures. We all like to blame others for failures... In fact, this sentence should be used in tactics. What you need are small failures, small setbacks, small mistakes, you need dilemmas in practice, and you need "favorable difficulties".
In 2007, The US Department of Education conducted a large-scale research and investigated many teachers and students, trying to figure out what exactly the learning method is truly effective. There are only a few ways to withstand scientific verification: intervals, tests and connection establishment.
Maybe it will only be sent later, but it may be that slow skill is the real skill. Maybe practicing something else is for practicing this, maybe not practicing it is for practicing it. Maybe the life of making mistakes is the real life... Is the principle of
particularly interesting? Encountering difficulties is the real learning, and this is probably the threshold for learning. Because of this threshold, the ability to be separated from the poor to be separated. If you are a good person, you will be glad that the threshold is like this.
Author | Wanweigang, researcher at the Department of Physics, University of Colorado, USA
Source | Luoji Siwei
